Vandread: Rise of the Forgotten

by Zadine05

As with all their victims before, my planet of Terra Nova was ravaged by the Earth Harvesters. After being betrayed by the one I trusted the most, as well as being the sole known survivor of my people, I must find others who are willing to take a stand. For the sake of my planet, the ones that have fallen, and the ones that may fall soon... We must rise up, or face self-extinction.

Prologue:

5 years before first contact with fellow Humans:

It's dark... the vastness of space itself is dark, but yet... has a light to it. Something I've never been able to fully understand... but this light... it blinds us.

Blinds us from the very things that inhabit that darkness. For when they come, we never see it coming. We must only accept the inevitable, while fighting with every last breath we have. Whats happens though... when that's not enough? What must one do when after all is said and done... you lose everything? My mom... my brothers... my comrades...my home... my planet... gone.

I can't help but clinch my fists tightly while my head lays against the screens that surround my cockpit, showing me all my surroundings. I've run for days on end... but I'm tired... cold... hungry...thirsty... even so I must go on!

One man's last words echo through my mind constantly, clawing at my very self as his fright-filled expression still lays fresh in my eyes. "You must go! As the last survivor of our home... you must let others know of Earth's treachery! Take this with you... for it is the key to your survival, as well as ours." I look around at the machine that has appeared around me. I still do not understand where it came from. All I did was wish with all my heart that I could escape that dreaded mothership of theirs... then the necklace I had been given glowed, and next thing I knew... I was in this thing flying away from their patrols.

I can feel tears running down my cheeks as I curl up in a ball... I failed them... I failed them all. The best pilot in the Terra Novan space navy... and I made no difference I lament to myself. The machine seems to react to me strangely enough, as I can see it's arms and legs doing the same as I am. Suddenly, a gas fills the cockpit while the lights begin to dim.

/Executing preservation protocols... please stand-by for cryogenic stasis./

"W-What?! N-No... stop!" I yell out while coughing, "We have to keep going... we have to find a place to rest and plan our next step!"

/Negative. As the last Terra Novan, preservation is critical. Protocol initiated.../

I know that it is wrong though... after all, mother had seen Earth coming and had made one, last desperate move. My sister is out there... somewhere. I must find her if I am to regain myself again. Before I succumb to the gas, I quickly tear off a piece of my white flight uniform and rummage through my pocket for a pen. I can only write down the first thing that comes to my mind as my eye-lids grow too heavy to keep open. I am not alone... there is another. With that, my eyelids close shut, while the lights from space fade from my view, then I fall into a deep slumber.